Sanford Waste Plan Approved

SANFORD — The city has cleared the first hurdle for plans to irrigate part of 2,200 acres of city-owned land near Geneva with treated wastewater.

The city, though, has yet to decide if it will go ahead with the plan opposed by Geneva residents.

The county board of adjustment Monday night agreed to let Sanford use millions of gallons of highly treated wastewater to irrigate orange groves and hay on the land.

The city still needs to complete designs necessary to obtain a state Department of Environmental Regulation permit. That could take another six months. Then, county commissioners will hold a public hearing to consider approving the plan, said Bill Simmons, Sanford's planning and engineering director.

Simmons said he expects DER approval since it was the state that ordered Sanford in 1981 to stop dumping treated wastewater into Lake Monroe to control nutrient pollution of the lake and the St. Johns River.

The city plans to plant over 300 acres of oranges and 800 acres of hay on the land to absorb the nutrients in the wastewater, Simmons said.

''We looked for crops that were suitable for that type of land,'' Simmons said. ''If we're going to harvest it, we might as well get as much financial yield as we can to defray the cost of the whole project.''

The city is still trying other ways to get rid of the wastewater, including selling it to homeowners to irrigate their lawns. The 2,200 acres, though, will be needed if those options fall through, Simmons said.

The city has yet to prepare a final design for the pump station and other facilities that would be part of the $11 million project.